1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a gas lighter with a safety device and, more particularly, to a gas lighter with a so-called child resistant type safety device which is intended to prevent the inadvertent ignition of the lighter by deterring the depression of an actuating lever thereof while it is not in use.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Though a gas lighter is a convenient tool which can easily be ignited by the depression of the actuating lever, it can be a safety hazard for those who, like children, do not know the proper use of the lighter.
To prevent such a hazard, various types of child resistant gas lighters have been proposed. Most of the safety devices built into these child resistant gas lighters have a lock mechanism which prevents the depression of the actuating lever and which must be released to allow the actuating lever to be depressed. However, any of the conventional-type child resistant gas lighters have drawbacks in their usage and thus it is desirable that the gas lighters be improved for practical use.
For example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,589,172, 4,786,248 and 4,784,602, any one of the disclosed safety devices is provided with a locking member for deterring the depression of the actuating lever. Since the locking member has to be manually moved between the locking position and the release position, the locking member tends to stay in the release position if it is not manually moved from the release position to the initial position after the lighter is used, so that the safety device remains unlocked. Leaving the locking member in the release position permits the actuating lever to be depressed, rendering the safety device inoperable. Specifically then, to ensure safety, the existing safety devices always have to be manually relocked after the lighter is used with the lock mechanism unlocked, and further safety improvements in the lock mechanism has been anticipated.
To solve the drawbacks set forth above, as a safety device having a locking member to impede the depression of the actuating lever, safety devices with what is called an autoreturn function have been proposed wherein the locking member automatically returns to the locking position in response to the igniting operation after the locking member has been manually moved to the release position. Examples of such safety devices include those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,482, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 3(1991)-25215 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,898,031 which have the auto-return function to allow the automatic returning of the locking member to the locking position in response to the ignition operation. With these safety devices, however, releasing the lock mechanism is only achieved by the motion of a finger along an L-shaped path, thereby resulting in the lock mechanism being inferior, in terms of operability, in the ease of releasing the locking member such that a lighter of this type generally requires operation with a single finger, such as a thumb, thus leading to different results depending on the users. Therefore, safety devices of this type can be said to be disadvantageous in practical use. Further, the locking member itself is made of a resilient material, and hence it is possible that the locking member will return to the locking position under its own resilience after having been moved to the release position, thereby resulting in the unreliable operation of the safety device.
Furthermore, there have been proposed safety devices wherein the locking member is released by the motion of a finger along a simple linear path instead of the L-shaped path, but any of those also have drawbacks in practical use. A safety device, for instance, known from Japanese Patent Publication of Translated Version (PCT) No. 3(1991)-501647 is provided with an automatic return function wherein part of a locking member being composed of a spring is moved along an actuating path to the release position and held there, then it automatically returns to the locking position in response to the ignition operation. In this type of safety device, the arrangement for regulating the release of the spring-like locking member is not satisfactory, and accordingly the locking member cannot be steadily released. This adversely affects the ease of releasing the lock mechanism in the gas lighter, which is generally operated with a single finger, and, as with the preceding example, the resulting operations will be different depending on the users.
As has been described above, any one of the existing child-resistant type safety devices has drawbacks in practical use, and hence there are growing demands for a safety device improved in both safety, more than ever, and operability.